CIA believes Saudi Crown prince ordered murder of Khashoggi: Report

The CIA has concluded that Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, contradicting the Saudi government's assertions that he was not involved, according to a media report.

The death of Khashoggi, a onetime insider turned critic of the crown prince and a resident of the US, has spurred a wave of international anger against Saudi Arabia and its ruler.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was last seen entering the kingdom's consulate on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage.

Saudi Arabia had offered a series of contradictory explanations for Khashoggi's death. After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted Khashoggi had been murdered at the compound but blamed it on a "rogue" operation.

American officials have expressed high confidence in the agency's assessment, which is the most definitive to date, allegedly linking Saudi Arabia's crown prince to the killing, according to The Washington Post.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) found that 15 Saudi agents flew on government planes to Istanbul and carried out the killing at the Saudi consulate, the report said, adding that it could complicate President Donald Trump's efforts to preserve US ties with one of the closest American allies in the region.

"The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved," a US official familiar with the CIA's conclusions, told the daily.

Saudi Arabia has denied any such linkage. Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said that the claims in the CIA's "purported assessment are false. We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations."